Diet for Discus

[RD.]

Feeding 6-8 feeds of anything would require a daily water change.

That would depend on the digestibility of the feed, how much one feeds at each feeding, and the total bio-load of the tank. In a large enough system that was only moderately stocked, with a highly digestible feed, massive daily water changes would not be required.

IMO it's not so much about what's natural, but about the nutrients that the fish require for optimum growth & health, and the overall digestibility of those ingredients. The goal should be to closely match the amino acids, fatty acids, etc as the fish would receive if eating in the wild. With today's commercial foods this is much easier to do than 20-30 yrs ago.

Amino acids & fatty acids from crustacean sources, algae and micro-algae, green plant matter made up from flowers, fruits, seeds, and leaves, along with a well balanced vitamin & trace mineral mix. I don't think that you can come much closer to a discus fishes natural diet than that, and all of those ingredients can be found in a single commercial food.

If one feels the need to supplement their discus fishes diet, I would think that insects such as ants, spiders, etc would be far better suited to their digestive system, than beefheart.

[firestorm]

I personally don't think that they will live very long by eating cows, it is not a natural diet for them and I don't think it's absolutely healthy for them. I can see someone using it as "part" of their diet as a juvenile to help them grow faster, but as the main food source I wouldn't. Not only that, some of the members on SD have to do almost daily water changes because of how badly beef heart affects water quality. I would much prefer to use something that didn't make me have to do daily water changes and I don't.

Yes you are right, but is flake a natural part of their diet? How about the spirulina and wheat flour and soy meal in it? To be honest I don't think much of what we feed our Discus is what they eat in the wild, if anything. I could possibly see daphnia and mosquito larve, but even then I am not sure. Beef heart can foul the water but the more you feed the more you need to do water changes anyways to be honest. Feeding 6-8 feeds of anything would require a daily water change

You can never replicate what any fish eat in the wild, unless you spend a fortune raising their foods or ordering from a different country. I mainly feed the flakes to the tank for the cardinals I have, since the other foods are 1mm pellets, but it is a light afternoon snack for my discus as well. I just don't think feeding them one thing and only one thing is such a great idea for any fish, even juveniles. I hate the fact that most breeders feed beef heart, but at least I know their diet will be much better than in their first stages of life. My discus get 3-4 feedings a day, one larger feeding of pellets in the morning, a small sprinkle of flake when I am home from work then usually a nice frozen food for dinner along with a spirulina wafer mainly for the plecos. They typically get 4 feedings on the weekends and I change 30% every 2 days. Haven't had any problems in a while now. I have 6 sub adult discus in a 90 gallon tank along with 20 cardinals and 2 BN plecos, I don't think I am heavily stocked enough and don't overfeed to require daily water changes.